Ricky M A's entry tutorial
----- ----- =Introduction= ----- Hi, my name is Richard Michael Anthony, and I'm here to teach you a little bit about what I've learned. Dominions 4, while it appears simple on the surface, is actually fairly in-depth. I'd suggest beginning with a duel map like Talis where you can experiment playing against other nations individually and learn a little about underwater combat at the same time. Now, If you want to go through the in game tutorial, it's under Game Tools. I know, weird place to put it, but hey if you want to find it that's where you'll find it. If you do that, then you can ignore all of the beginning choices section as the game decides that for you. ----- ----- =Beginning Choices= ----- These are never easy in a new game, so let me help you out a little bit. There are a lot of decisions to make, and the really difficult part is that the game doesn't include a back button, so once you make a decision you're stuck with it until you start the game or cancel playing it entirely. It's really a pain. Because of that, I will try to help you out. Map Choice Choose Talis as your map. It's easiest to start off with a duel. Your other option is Frosted Land, where the game's tutorial starts you. The big difference is that you can do sea warfare in Talis, where you can't in Frosted Land. The other maps are all larger and meant for more players. This is your first game, and you don't want to worry about that. Frosted Land would be easier to learn with, but Talis offers some aspects you'll need to know. Age Choice I like the Middle Ages. Really, it's all about flavor, but I enjoy the middle ages best, just a tiny bit. Part of that is that my favorite race is the Ulm of the Middle Age and yes, they are drastically different than the Ulm of the other ages. The descriptions of each age are pretty apt. Early ages allow you to generalize in magics more easily, where as Late Ages are a bit more difficult to generalize, but have more custom spells for each race. Middle Ages only have a couple customized spells for each race. Nation Choice This is semi important, but really nation choice depends more on your play style than anything else. I haven't explored enough to really understand it all. I'll offer some suggestions, but they're based entirely on my game preferences. Frosted Land If you chose the Frosted Land and Middle Ages I'd suggest Ulm, Forges of Ulm. In the Frosted Land you could choose any land based people, and honestly lots of them have interesting aspects, so just find one that suits you. I'll write a tutorial specifically on the Ulm shortly. The main reason I like them in the Middle Ages is that I get an extra 120 points to spend right away. It's helpful. Talis If you chose Talis then you have the option to go with either a land based nation or a sea based nation. Again, if you're in the Middle Ages I'd still suggest the Ulm, Forges of Ulm, but that's my personal choice. If it was my first game I might make it even simple and put the enemy nation as a Random Land nation. Makes the combat very straight forward. Another good choice for Talis is Ermor, Ashen Empire, again as a middle age choice. Ermor are undead and that means that many of them don't need to breathe, so they can travel underwater without problems. Pretender Choice Alright, You chose an age and a nation. Now, since I can't be sure of your choice on either I have to lead you on your pretender choice without foreknowledge of what choices you have. The easiest way to do that is to describe what your choices will look like. The big thing about pretenders is that they allow you to flesh out your kingdom. Either you can add a new element, or you can emphasize the elements your nation already focuses on. A quick example with the Ulm, Forges of Ulm The Allfather can sail across the sea with several hundred soldiers. It won't help in Talis because he still can't fight at sea, but it would help in the Frosted Lands and in many other maps. As well as which pretenders to choose, I'm also going to advise how you spend your points with each type. It's pretty inherent with each pretender type. If you want to just get started, then choose a statue. They're the easiest to just start with and my advice lays out for you exactly what to select. As for the name, type in anything you want to hear a lot. I go with Culbeth for anyone ice related. Rulag for those of a Fire or forging orientation. Drachir for most of my wizards. Leeshera for anyone I'm sneaking around. Prochorus for my beautiful gods, because he's beautiful, and basically any of the gods from the universe that I write. Statues Statues typically start with 4 points in Dominion. That's important because you automatically lose if your dominion (read religious fervor for your deity) is destroyed from all of the world. I actually won my last game by killing a god with pure dominion strength. He still had all of the ocean tiles and I couldn't get past them. These are just what I said, statues. They can't move, can't help in battle, can't offer new magic sources by searching your realm. Really, they can't do much. The key to them is twofold. One, they're cheap, Two you don't care when you can use them, so Imprison them (keeps them safe for a few years too). That's the thing. A statue as your pretender ends up giving you extra points to spend on your dominion and blessings. Statues give you the best chance for good blessings and a nice dominion. Couple a statue with a nation like Ulm, Forges of Ulm, and you have excellent point spending opportunities. Magic Left click to increase, and right click to decrease. Choose your statue based on their magic paths. It's as simple as that, getting new paths is too expensive and you're picking a statue because they're cheap. Above I have a link to the paths and their blessings are listed on top; that's all you care about in these instances. 1 path statues: get it all the way up to level 10. 2 path statues: get one to level 9 and the other to 4 3 path statues: get two to level 6 and the other to 4 (unless you have a path that increases at odd levels like Air Death or Nature then get one to 6, one of those to 5, and a different one to 4) If you check that paths which I have listed you'll see that they all improve at even numbered spots. a couple improve every level, but we're generalizing here. ----- Now, something to note. Each point above the initial starting point that a pretender starts at costs 8*n where n is the number of points you're going above the pretender's starting point. For instance if the pretender starts at 2 levels in Astral and 1 level in Earth, then it would cost 8 to get Astral to level 3 and another 16 points (totaling 24 now) to get Astral to level 4. On the other hand, with this same pretender it would cost those 24 points just to get Earth to level 3 (8 for level 2 and 16 for level 3). Dominion Strength points increase the same way, except by 7s not 8s. ----- Dominion Left click to increase, and right click to decrease. In you dominion, make it's strength at least 9 maybe even 10. With statues, going from 9 to 10 costs 42 points Statues are generally cheap. at this point you should have between 161 and 271 points. Depending on your statue and dominion strength. That gives you anywhere from 4 to 6 upgrades for your actual dominion. My favorite is luck. I'd put 2 into that right away. I enjoy random events. But really, it depends on what nation you chose from this point and I can't even begin to speculate. Some nations need more gold (Growth > Productivity). Some, like Ulm, Forges of Ulm have cheap units on comparison to their resource cost (productivity). Supplies don't matter to Ermor, Ashen Empire so instead of growth, go negative a point or two towards death. Magic helps with research of every researcher every turn, that can stack pretty high if you're buying cheap researchers. Anyway, I go luck and then productivity for my favorites, split how you like. Dominions are in constant flux. Something to note is that certain pretenders, like Statue of War get certain benefits from negative influences in your dominion. Ancient Deities They usually have starting dominion of 3. So, these are big guys who look a lot like ancient gods in our own world's mythology. These guys are usually able to lead armies pretty well and they're strong. But that's the thing, you're buying a commander and gamboling that he'll be worth more than an improved dominion. Since you're buying a commander, you probably want him awake. Dormant can be ok, but it starts you behind. I'd rather begin awake immediately and start charging into battle with him leading your main force. This creates the problem of low points. That's ok. Magic Alright, your points are limited and new magical paths are expensive. Knock the two or three you have up to level 4 if you have 2 and one of them increases at odd levels as well as even, like Air Death or Nature, then feel free to knock it up to 5. You can probably get away with increasing one to level 6 if you feel the need. If you went with a more expensive god, then get dominion up to at least 6 before seeing where you're at. depending on the deity, you may be able to afford another path at the expense of a nice dominion. Just put one point in that path to open up options in game. Dominion Strength of 6 is acceptable, 7 would be good, and if you can swing 8 that would be fantastic. Still, I usually aim for 7 with these guys. Since they're moving around the map, they're spreading their dominion with them as they go. At this point, you may have a little left to make your dominion nice as it spreads. Probably not more than 2 points. I go back to my advice above and say start with luck. Another important thing to note is that some pretenders actually garner benefits from negative attributes to your dominion. Weighing those out can truly help you improve your world. Monsters They usually have a starting dominion of 2 These are difficult to tell apart from the ancient gods, and in a way they serve much the same usefulness. They travel the map wreaking havoc against your enemies, some may even be powerful enough to solo capture places against neutral armies. Start them awake. They need to wage war and gain experience. They are tough and solid. They can still lead quite a few troops, but not as many as the Ancient Deities. The big thing they have going for them is that they're individually very powerful. That makes them more difficult to kill. Get them experience so that they can become more powerful. Magic You're going for Bless effect still here. They usually have a couple paths or at least one. Since they're awake their points will be low though and new paths are still expensive. Follow their paths to get the bless bonuses if you can afford to. Create a new path if you feel the need. You need to save more for dominions this time though Dominion With a starting Dominion of 2 that means it's just as expensive to get to 5 for monsters as it was for Ancient Deities to get to 6. That means you have even fewer points now than you did with the last group. Make dominion AT LEAST 5 if you can get it higher I'd suggest you do. It'll help that your god is on the frontline, but not too much. Wizards They usually have a domain of only 1 Some variety here. The essential thing about your wizards, new paths are cheap. Master Lich Is not a wizard, but a monster because his new paths are too expensive. Master Alchemist is a wizard though. That's the essential difference between them. The great thing about wizards, they offer tons of customization. They're a little tight on points though. They're weak domain severely limits what they're capable of doing. I usually make my Wizards dormant for a few reasons. First off, they don't need to experience immediately. Second, while they are excellent at research, they aren't useful until I have some spells researched for them to utilize. Lastly, my favorite thing to use wizards for is surveying my land for new magical deposits to increase my gem output. To do that I need to have conquered some land. Magic By opening up the possibilities, magic becomes much more complicated with wizards than it was with the other options. The main reason for this is simply that you have to choose what you're really going for. Opening up every path enables them to empower themselves ingame much more easily. It costs 50 gems (or slaves) to empower a magical path to level 1 no matter who it is. It only costs 30 to go from level 1 to level 2. I tend to make every path have 1 point and then bring as many as I can up to 3 or 4. At 3 I seem to be able to find more places for gems, and that's my main aim with these pretenders. But at 4 it adds to the blessings. It will be easier to increase the paths the wizard already has access to up to 4 for a blessing. Dominion This starts out at strength level 1 for wizards, entirely too weak. you need to bring this up to at least level 5 which would cost you 70 points level 6 will be 105 If you followed my advice and made them dormant you'll need at the 6 to keep your dominion at an even acceptable level. you may want to even knock it up to 7 147 points total on dominion strength. Game Settings Starting provinces I like 2, but 1 works just fine. Strength of independents. Honestly, not sure exactly what it means, but more means that they're more difficult. If you have a solo monster you want to explore make them weaker otherwise just leave it. Special site frequency again, not quite sure, more means more gems though so if you want to focus on magic go more, if not go low and cripple your enemies to just using troops and religious blessings. Multiples leave them unless you really want more of something. some races need extra resources over gold, other lean the other way. Random events are you feeling lucky? Story events I always enable, but doesn't matter. Score graphs Enable for the first game to track how they're doing and see where you need to improve, disable after a few games and use your spells Hall of Fame entries: 15 Unique artifact Forging Rate Leave limited Standard Research Leave it Thrones of Ascension Change. there are lots of options. Victory points works well if you're fighting and can't get to where they are (ocean tiles and you're a land only nation) Provinces works well in that same situation. If you go thrones of ascension make It so that you only need a majority. They do add a little spice to the game, especially the level 2 and 3 ones. Master Password Who cares, it's your computer. Unless you don't want your brother or sister jumping in and ruining it. Renaming Allow it, it adds more fun to the game when Mikey the commander of Ulm dies in battle ----- ----- =First Moves = ----- So, we finally begin. I spend way too much time on listing out all of the pretenders. Ok, to your right is a list of all of the stuff going on. It's a long list. Let's start with the important things. You select a province by right clicking on it. You start every turn with your home province selected. Options Select preferences under the game section is "Warn on End of Turn" Select that so the circle has a line through it. On "Give orders to new commanders automatically," select that so that it has a line through it to. The rest choose yourself. Scouts can be difficult to find and difficult to remember. So to can wizards you're moving around and having search territories. Map Filters Select everything, I do anyway Statistics Pretenders of the world will show you who you're facing. Nation overview is a nice page to check out as well, but matters more later Research This depends on your path of magic, but construction is good to equip your army. Evocation is good for sending wizards to war, conjuration is good for creating a larger army. Enchantment is good for death, and can help on the battle field as well. Check them all and look for spells highlighted blue. They're unique to your nation. Global enchantments, magic resources, and magic items treasury are all more useful later. Mercenaries are for when you have extra gold and need to flesh your army with a new type of troops (mountain, or sea) Below recruit units is a list of the benefits of the particular tile you're on. Army Setup This is pretty important, so I saved it for a second. Left click the green tile to move a unit around on your portion of the battle field. I move my scouts to the back of the field, select their orders and order them to retreat. Assassins are different as you want them to attack. Melee units I send up to the front and set their orders. Usually, if I have a commander who can command 3 squads, I order one to attack closest, one to attack rear, and one to guard the commander. My commanders are interesting. I like for them to hold at least two rounds before sending them into the fray. once they've held, they can enter. It forces the enemy to target the other groups who already ran in, usually enabling my commander to survive. If the commander dies, the troops retreat and spread out. Melee commanders I then order to attack closest. Recruit units You already have a military commander, recruit a commander up top who can research right away. preferably the cheapest one who can be produced in one turn and has a decent research. as far as the actual units go, put them on repeat and begin with your weaker guys. right now you need to flesh out your army. Try to stay away from wild as they seem to flee more quickly from battle and you just loose them as you go, but if you can't grab some for a turn at most 2. First Orders To the left of your screen is a list of commanders located on that province. Click on the portrait allows you to move units. If they can sneak and all under their command can sneak, then they will sneak into a province rather than attacking it. Hold ctrl and click on a neighboring province to make them attack instead. If they can't sneak, then just clicking on a neighboring province will have them attack (it'll just say move but enemies there will make it an attack) If you click the words describing the commanders actions, then you can select something more intricate, like research, patrolling, or becoming a prophet of your deity (each nation can only have 1 prophet at a time. Sneak your scout/assassin away towards where the enemy should be. make your military commander the prophet. I used to wait for a wizard, but it's better this way. by making it your lead commander he spread your religion as he travels, increasing your domain, and at the same time is able to cast bless spells on your troops, which means he's doing something worthwhile while holding his actions before wading into battle. End Turn ----- ----- =Later turns= ----- By turn 3 you've conquered another province and hopefully now have 2 researchers for your empire Right click on your new province, that's how you select it. You're going to need that to give orders to take over another one anyway. If it's a province that won't be completely protected, then I'd also suggest investing in defense (the game spells it like the British and I don't feel like doing that). As you spend on defense each point you put into it costs more, like spending on spells earlier except it goes up by 1. Still, by the time you've spent 50 points it's 1275 gold Making locations defendable is a key to keeping the enemy from taking over. 50 is usually enough to stop most armies, but you have to realize that if they have a large enough military they will just walk over it, and the troops there can't move at all. Still, they don't require upkeep and they don't die from the battles. I need to take a break and get some food, I described some of the most essential starting points of the game. It offers a lot of customization to start and no guidance, I offer the guidance and the reasons I do what I do. It's taking me forever to do this especially since nothing else in the wiki is done, so I leave you here and will come back later if I can. Feel free to send me messages about what you don't know so when I do come back I can answer your questions.